Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and a device for carrying out travel route planning for a vehicle.
Description of the Background Art
A vehicle user often faces the problem that he must keep various appointments at different locations within a specific time period. For this purpose, travel route planning for the vehicle should be carried out. The travel route should be planned so that the user reaches the locations where the appointments take place in a timely fashion with the vehicle. It must be considered in this regard that from time to time the energy storage device needs to be replenished. Particularly in the case of electric vehicles it is necessary to include the recharging of the battery as conveniently as possible in the travel route planning, because the range of an electric vehicle is usually much shorter than the range of a conventional vehicle, which is powered by means of a fuel.
DE 195 19 107 C1, which corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 5,790,976, and which discloses a travel route guidance device particularly for an electric vehicle. The described device comprises a data input unit for entering one or more destinations for a trip and a road network memory for storing the locations on the road network travelable by the vehicle and the associated distances to locations. Further, the device comprises a computing unit for determining one or more possible trip routes from the vehicle location to the destinations including the necessary energy supplying processes at one or more energy supply locations depending on the amount of energy present in the energy storage device, the energy supply network, and the route-specific energy consumption. Finally, the device comprises a display unit for displaying the routes determined by the computing unit.
DE 10 2004 022 265 A1 discloses a method for drawing up a route from a starting point to a destination in a navigation system. In the method, a factor that influences the energy consumption for traversing the route is taken into account in drawing up the route.
DE 100 59 746 A1 discloses a method for computer-aided travel route planning and travel route guidance, which takes into account dynamic changes in the traffic situation and changes in appointments.
A navigation data providing system is known from EP 1 300 817 B1, which corresponds to US 2003/0055554. In this system, drive plan data are sent out which are selected as a function of user preference data. The drive plan data are received by a navigation terminal and used for route guidance for the vehicle.
EP 1 201 849 A2, describes a method and device for allocating parking spaces. In the method, an enquiry is made over a radio unit in a vehicle about a possibility of parking to the device for allocating parking spaces. This enquiry contains information on the current position of the vehicle. The device determines the next free parking option from this and transmits this as destination information to the vehicle. Next, the expected arrival time is calculated and the availability of the determined parking option is checked at a predetermined lead time before the expected arrival time. If the parking option is free, it is possible to reserve it for the vehicle. If the parking option is no longer free, the device determines a new parking option and transmits the corresponding information to the vehicle.
DE 103 02 504 A1 discloses a method for determining the range of an electric vehicle. In the method, vehicle, route, and/or environmental information for the vehicle and a planned or a currently driven route are acquired and processed by a vehicle computer. The remaining range of the electric vehicle is calculated from this information and displayed.
DE 10 2005 055 243 A1 discloses a method for determining an energetically favorable travel route for a vehicle. In the method, the starting point and endpoint of the route are entered. Further, vehicle-related information, particularly load information, is provided. The provided vehicle-related information is compared with stored route data in the form of vehicle-related information and energy consumption. Thereupon, a driving route with minimized energy consumption based on the stored route data is selected depending on the provided vehicle-related information and the starting point and endpoint. Finally, the data on the selected route are output.
DE 10 2009 053 982 A1 discloses a system for calculating a consumption-optimized route for a motor vehicle. The system has a position receiver, a traffic information receiver, and a computing unit with whose aid a route to a destination is calculable. The computing unit can calculate a consumption-optimized route by using vehicle-individual and/or driver-individual consumption-relevant data.